If you suck at budgeting like me...

[Richard Low]

My wife and I sucked at budgeting for the first four years of our marriage (two years in undergrad together and the first two years of grad-school). We tried Mint, spreadsheets, but we mostly just winged it. We fought about money and overspent. Then we'd swear to be better the next month. Even little purchases can be a point of contention when you're living on a limited budget and going into debt.

Last October we bought a piece of software called You Need A Budget aka YNAB. YNAB has a iPhone/Android apps to log your purchases wherever you go and if you forget, it only takes me about 15-20 minutes every week to catch up. Budgeting has to be simple and flexible if you want to stick with it. YNAB excels at both. It had a small learning curve, but after the first couple of months we had it figured it out. We haven't fought about money since.

Well, that's not true - we did fight about my wife going to the dentist a few months before I started working in our school's dental clinic and could have seen her for free. She won and we spent the money, but it was no biggie because there was room for it in the budget and for her it was worth the peace of mind.

Anyway. We've put our RE investing plans on hold for now, but essential to our future plans is having cash to invest. Budgeting and living below your means is the original 'creative financing.' It's not sexy, it takes discipline and patience. But for us that's where it starts.

Some people from YNAB's forums have used YNAB for their small business. It unfortunately can't replace quickbooks for accounting/tax purposes so those people double-log their transactions and swear that it's worth it.

YNAB is on sale right now for $40 instead of the normal $60 until July 22nd, 2013. Check out their website (youneedabudget.com), read the '4 rules', and download the free trial. If you like it, pull the trigger and buy the software while it's only $40. We bought it at $60 and it has paid for itself 20x over.

I have no connection to YNAB, I get no kickbacks, this is a breakdown/review and I hope this doesn't violate forum rules. I'm actually buying a couple copies myself during this sale to give as gifts.

Enjoy!